Taken with Canon Elph HS 300 just on normal program. I was walking to my car back from school and noticed that there was construction on a new building. The stairs seemed like a "stairway to heaven" so I had to take a picture.

-Jackrin Vipatapat

I drove out to Lolo Pass on the Montana/Idaho border to take pictures of the wildflowers growing up there. When I arrived I was disappointed to see that a massive storm cloud had covered the sky and there was no good light for taking pictures. Just as I was about to throw in the towel, the storm clouds dissipated and I caught this shot of the horizon.
I was using a Nikon D90 with an AF-S NIKKOR 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens. Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO Speed: 500.

-Ed Wrzesien

Just a couple of clouds shots taken so I could try developing film in coffee (there's bonus points for that right?) unfortunately not much more story to it than that: saw clouds, saw cranes, went oooh, took photo...
Shot on Kodak Tri-x 400, developed in Caffenol C-H (which works incredibly well!). Camera was a mamiya 6.

-James Robertson

I wound up going out into the countryside about 5 minutes from my town. It was late at night and the textures of the clouds looked really interesting. So I decided to set up my tripod and fiddle around with some settings to see what would look the most eye catching. I started working with zooming while taking the picture and I wanted to see what it would look like if I zoomed the lens while rotating the camera at the same time. What came out were a handful of some really cool looking images. Personally, I think it looks like what the inside of a tornado (or something far more sinister).
Canon Digital Rebel XS, Canon EF 75-300 MM f/4-5.6, ISO 100.

-Michael Wanfalt

This was taken with an F6 at 1/250 using a Canon 1000D 18-55 Standard lens kit. Post processing was done in Photoshop. I took this at a time when the rain was hesitant but the clouds were at their generous best overladen and ready to share their burden.

-Pheno Menon

This is from my office window, I spent the day looking out the window for the clouds and crane to line up. I like to think that this is how clouds get placed in the sky.
Taken with a Canon Rebel T1i with a 50mm Prime lens.
Aperture Value: 4
Exif Version: 2.2
Exposure Bias Value: 0
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Exposure Time: 1 / 1600
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length: 50
ISO Speed Ratings: 100
Metering Mode: Pattern

-DC Dan

So I set out to get some photo's of clouds for this week's gizmodo photo contest, I don't own a polorizing lens filter so I improvised by using a cheap pair of sun glasses, I was suprised by the results!
Nikon D3100, 18-55M kit lens, ISO 400.

-Justin Beck

I saw the red light glow through my blinds and into my eyes. I looked out the window and grabbed the camera quickly there after and this is the result.
The settings I used on my 550d/t2i with the kit 18-55 at 18mm were f/3.5, ISO-100 and 1/25, handheld.

-Andreas Vadian

When reading, I realized I don't own a polarizing filter, but I do own a pair of polarizing sunglasses. So I cranked the exposure time down till the whole sky was overexposed, and placed my sunglasses in front only to reveal perfectly clouds and blue sky. Afterwards, I did some touching up to help emphasize the effect.
Camera: Olympus EP-1
Lens: M. ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6
ISO: 100
F Number: f/22
Exposure time: 1/15 of a second
Focal length: 25 mm

-Ross Mckibbon

Snapped this picture over London on a short Flight back to the UK from Germany, the incredible turbulence made it difficult to get a clear shot!
Picture shot using a Canon 5D MK II, EF70-200 @ 70MM, F/4, 1/400s, IS0250.

-Thomas Butterfield

Yesterday, I was on a boat on Shasta Lake in Redding CA, and as the sun was setting over the mountains, I remembered the contest and quickly grabbed a few shots. I kept the shutter speed high because we were moving along pretty fast. There were a few shots with a wider field of view, but I liked this one because of the simplicity and leading lines of the three trees. I exposed for the sky, knowing that I wanted the trees in silhouette. Contrast, Sharpness, and Saturation adjusted slightly in ACR and Photoshop during the conversion from .NEF to .JPG.
Nikon D5000, f/6.3, 1/500", ISO - 200, Nikkor 18-55 DX @ 48mm.

-Ben Holder

I've been following the shooting challenges for a few months and finally decided to give it a try. And what a challenge this was! I spent 3 days trying to shoot the perfect cloud...and failed... Then, I remembered this old frigate (and by old I mean 18th century old...), which is actually a mini-museum in my home town. It was late in the afternoon and the museum already closed when I got there and there was a storm front approaching, which left me very little time to shoot. I'm a newbie, so the lack of time (and skill) lead to this shot.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i with 18-55 kit lens, F/7 with 1/800s exposure @ ISO 100 (using Aperture Priority Mode).

-Rafael Victória-Pereira

There is literally no story to this, I walked down the streets, saw the neat light coming off the top of the clouds, and snapped the picture.
Shot this at f/4 - 1/2500.

-Dirk Grebenc

This summer has been extremely rainy and stormy here in Denver, CO. All week long I have been trying my best to capture a lightning bolt during the storms. I am still learning my camera and have been trying tons of different ideas. I didn't even notice this photo had the start of a lightning bolt until I decided to look for a submission for the contest. Since my ISO was set as high as my camera would go I decided to process this slightly to add some excitement to it. There was no mention of taking cloud pictures at night, I know a lot of the instructions included ways to filter sunlight. I decided to skip that problem all together. I shot this on my Canon EOS Rebel XT using my Canon EFS 18-55mm IS lens at 18mm 1/30 at f/3.5 at 1600 ISO.

-Chad Robertson

I thought this challenge would be tough with the sunny weather here in NYC lately, but while I was sitting on my porch a windy storm was rolling in during sunset. Needless to say, the sunset helped provided a nice set of color while the thunder was rolling in.
Canon EOS ES, 1/100, 55mm, f/5.6.

-Marty Perez

Denver Thunderstorm I
This thunderstorm was shot in the Denver, CO area on 07/13/2011. The storm was taking place around sunset, making for spectacular colors and layers in the massive cloud. No tornadoes came because of this cloud, though we were ready to take cover if necessary. :)
Olympus E-5
Shutter: 1/50 sec
F-Stop: F8
Focal: 9mm
ISO: 200

-Jeremy Week

Pictures taken 7-16-11 in abq NM. Taken from a kite camera at about 400ft.

I took this photo on my walk home from work during the full moon. Actually, this is one of several. I found it difficult to capture enough light for the clouds without having the moon overexposing my shot. In the end, I cheated just a little bit and underexposed the moon in photoshop. :( Anyway, I hope you like it. Pew!
Canon Rebel XS, Canon 28-135mm @ 53mm, ISO 800, 0.60s

-Juan Cervera

I was on a flight east to west coast, racing the sunset across the country. I checked the weather and saw it would be clear—so of course I'm going to bring my 7D as my carry on! I found this cloud somewhere over Texas, and just loved how large, yet, light it was. The shape is very dynamic and caught my eye-almost like a happier version of a mushroom cloud. The sunset was perfect for the lighting, and I began snapping away!
Canon EOS 7D, ISO 100, 29mm, f10, 1/100 shutter.

-Kelly Bumford

Since the day had been really nice we decided to go to the lake relatively late in the afternoon. While I was playing with reflections on the water i saw some nice clouds forming, I remembered the Gizmodo challenge and tried to capture what I saw.
Settings were quite boring, F/4 exp 1/1250 sec, 100 iso, 32mm.

-Tim Rohwer

Originally I set out to do this project without purchasing a polarizing filter - assuming I could get a shot that captured clouds that were intense and rolling enough to ignore the washed out image. That wasn't working out but it occurred to me that my sunglasses were polarized. I drove around on this perfect day to find open space areas. Several industrial parks and fields later I landed with this one atop a hill at a construction site. I really enjoy the blue gradient from dark and rich at the top, very contrasting in the center, and almost blending in with clouds at the bottom. The trick was to shoot at a focal length long enough to hide the frames of the sunglasses and also get a sense of vastness in the sky.
Shot with a Pentax K2000 with kit 18-55mm lens, Oakleys, F/9.5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/250 sec.

-Geoffrey Clark

I waited several days for the clouds and the water to be just right to capture my shot I call "Reflections". The shot is actually a 3 image composition shot with a Canon 50D using an EF-S 10-22 lens. Aperture was set at 7.1 for all exposures. Exposure times were 1/200, 1/800 and 1/3200. I did this to be able to capture even exposures for the water, trees and clouds.
The images were then combined in photomatix to add a little drama (not really for the HDR look). I then ran the result through photoshop for noise reduction and sharpening.

-Ali Elhajj

I never actually intended to take part in the shooting challenge, but the sunset from my apartment was just too good to not take a photo of. I quickly rushed out to get my 500D (knowing that the lighting with sunsets changes very quickly), put on my 50mm and only managed to compose one shot before the wonderful orange and grey hues of the clouds disappeared. This is taken with an EOS 500D with the 50mm f/1.8II lens an ISO of 400 and f1.8.

-Jason Hoon

Cannon PowerShot S5ISon and landscape setting. Taken from the Gazebo overlooking the valley in Geneseo NY.

-Jeffrey Levine

I've had the IR converted camera for a few months and when I read about the Clouds challenge I knew that was the camera for the job. IR really cuts through haze and with some tweaking, amazing detail comes out. Notice how foliage is interpreted as shades of white (pink without the B&W layer.) When adjusting Levels-Red channel I could watch the picture come alive. It went from a flat picture to revealing the sun direction and billowy clouds.
Digital Rebel XT, IR converted (R72-like filter), EF-S 18-55mm lens, 18mm focal length, 400 ISO, 3.6 aptitude, 1/80 shutter speed, heavy PS adjustments: Channel Mixer, Levels, Black & White, etc.

-Ed Zimmeth

I was out last night with some family and friends for the the Fiesta de la Virgen de Carmen (blessing of the boats) ceremony in Menorca, Spain. The Virgin is placed on a military boat and leads a procession of local boats out to the harbour entrance and back to be be blessed. It is a fascinating spectacle with a hundred or more boats all in very close proximity to each other all vying for the best vantage point. Having been thinking about this weeks challenge but unluckily (or luckily!) not had any clouds to speak of when I saw these few clouds just after the sun had set I knew this would probably be my only chance to get a shot.
I've taken some photos like these before with the sun over the horizon illuminating the clouds from below and the land in silhouette and really like the results. I shoot with a Sony a230, this image was shot in RAW with manual settings using a 55-200 kit lens, 1/200, f/9, 75mm.

-Gregg Parker

I really wanted to participate in this week's challenge, but I just never happened to catch a nice cloud or sky. And the final day to take a picture turned out to be the rainiest sunday this summer so far. Grey sky, big rain drops, no chance for any good images. Just when I was about to completely abandon the challenge I took a glimpse out of my window in the evening and saw this awesome color in the sky. I grabbed my camera, jumped into my dad's ol' Land Rover, drove outside of town and snapped away. Perfect timing I guess. Canon Rebel T2i, EF50mm f/1.4 USM shot at f/4, 1/125s, ISO100. Some Curves adjustments in Aperture.

-Max Stiebling

This rainbow is shot from my home at the ninth floor in The Netherlands. I decited to try a HDR to be able to get a good exposure in all parts of the photo. To genarate the HDR result I used Photomatrix Pro and after that a little bit of Lightroom to solve some vingnetting of the full frame sensor with this lens.
Camera: Canon 5d Mark ii
Lens: 70-200 2.8 IS ii UMS
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/2.8
Schutterspeed: 1/640s, 1/2500s and 1/8000s

-Frank Reynhout

I was looking/experimenting in my backyard for something that might be worthy of the contest and happened to to catch these clouds coming over the treeline. So, in already messing with my camera's monochrome setting I took the shot. and that's all she wrote
Canon Rebel XS Digital Camera, Set to portrait (with monochrome enabled), 100 ISO, 300mm lens.

-Tony Chavez

I love clouds and am constantly taking pictures of them, sadly I don't have a camera, so I have to use my cell phone. The camera on my cell phone is a 3.2 megapixel camera, and this photo was taken with the resolution of 2048X1536. Me and my brother were taking a walk by the river when I took this picture. It was taken around 6 P.M. When we saw these clouds, we were both in awe of the beauty. The reflection of the sun rays off of the clouds is my favorite part of this picture. More often than not, sun rays are only seen on the colored images of a child's drawing. In this picture however, due to the clouds being in front of the sun, the sun rays are very obviously highlighted and also quite thick. I also like how there are more than one type of cloud in this image. Near the tree line the clouds are more of a stratus cloud and the ones near the sun are more of a cumulus cloud. It would be a much better picture if I had a camera, but it can still be appreciated. The combination of the clouds and sun really made this picture what it is. Hope you enjoy! I hope I got the sizes right, it was a bit hard to figure out how to save them in the correct format.

-Beth Baker

On my way to buying weekend groceries, spotted this formation which looked beautifully similar to an 8th note (flagged) and I thought to myself, now that's "music in the air"! Had me trusty Ipod Touch ready to shoot, which beat me ol' Nikon D5000 in being available right in my back-pocket!
Equipment used: Ipod Touch.
Exif Info: 3.8mm (Focal length); F2.4 (aperture value); 100 (ISO).

-Rishabh Sharma

This picture was taken on my iPhone 4 with the standard camera app without HDR mode so nothing fancy. It was taken in Cornwall in England while I was gliding at my volunteer gliding squadron. There was mostly bad weather this weekend and didn't get much of a chance to go up but on Sunday the weather was on and off and was a slot to get up flying and I managed to take this picture of a nasty looking rain cloud making its way over the coast and towards us. After landing during this flight the cloud came over us and let go, torrential rain for about half an hour, soaking us and the gliders, which took us a while to dry to go flying again.

-James Hawkins

I shot this picture on the way back from Philadelphia, with a Samsung Vibrant(hence picture quality). I had better ones that had clouds, but they weren't the main focus. Oh well, maybe when I get a DSLR(though ill never have the money) :D

-Avin Abrah

I try to get a window seat each time I fly and tend to pick seats with the wing in view as a reference of sorts. I focused out to infinity and shot wide open at f/2.8 so you really can't tell that the window was quite dirty.
Shot with a D700, 14-24 at 24mm, f/2.8, ISO-200, 1/5000 sec with spot metering on the clouds while flying out to D.C.

-Ansel Shaw

When this challenge was announced I was concerned because it was crystal clear out but the forecast said we should have some clouds by Sunday, thankfully they were right (not often the case). This picture was taken from the west side of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. The rock formation on the mountain is referred to as "Praying Monk"; can you see it??? As I am writing this these clouds are still building and hopefully we will actually get some rain (also not often).
Canon EOS XS, EF55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 USM, ISO 200, 200 mm, F/7.1, 1/1600 (In hopes of not picking up my shake at full zoom…still learning.)

-Chuck Knobel

After the Storm
For this shot I was outside trying to get some shots of the lightning from the storm rolling in. The clouds started to clear up around the moon and I thought it would make a great shot for this weeks challenge. I used a Nikon D3000 with a Nikor VR 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 lens. The camera was on a tripod. I used 1.6 second exposure at f/5.7 with a focal length of 200mm and ISO100.
-Seth Lowie

The Vast Unknown
First off this is one of the few times I am glad to live in New Mexico were we are known for our wide open skies and incredible clouds. To capture this greatness I wanted to take a picture of more than just fluffy white stuff in the sky. So I walked up to the top of my street and took this picture. I think it really shows how huge and far reaching clouds can be as they stretch down and across the Rio Grande River Valley all the way to Mount Taylor.
Canon Kiss X4, f/7.1, 1/1000, ISO 100, 50mm Mk II.

Kelly O'Neill

This was a little trial and error. The photo that actually turned out the best was the non polorized photos that I took. This was taken on my Canon XSi with a 50 mm1.4 lens. At 1/640 at f/5.6 ISO 100. This photo looks like a reindeer on a snowy plain!

-Seth Porter

Taken around 11th street in Manhattan during sunset looking out towards NJ. I thought the old dock pilings were cool and a nice contrast against the sky/clouds.
Nikon D60, Nikon 18-200mm w/ polarized filter, focal length: 20mm, shutter 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 400.

-John McGrail

They say the best camera is the one you have on you, so this is a sweet cell phone shot. Ughh hate when the DSLR is at home! I think it looks like a guys face with a goatee yelling at the sky!

-Sam Katz

Tried out my circular polarizer for this challenge. I saw a little difference in color of the sky with it on, but not as much as I expected. When trying it on some glass table tops indoors while getting ready the difference was amazing though.
Canon Rebel XT with kit 18-55mm lens, circular polarizing filter, 18 mm, F4.5, 1/2500, ISO 200.

-Joshua Post

I Took this photo from a plane heading from Washington D.C to London, England with my Canon G11 After falling asleep for a bit I awoke, right at sunrise and just had to take a picture. I had quickly pulled out my G11 and got the settings just right, It took me almost 20 minutes to get the shot just right and making sure their was no reflections and snapped this shot.
Camera: Canon G11
Lens: 55mm Prime lens (built in)
ISO: 80
Shutter Speed: 1/600
Aperture: 4

-David M. Utt

Here is my submission for the clouds contest. I took this with a Nikon D90 with just the kit lens (18-105mm). It was shot at f10 at 1/000 and ISO 200. There isn't much of a story behind it unfortunately. I pulled in the parking lot for the arboretum where I run, and since I am obsessed with clouds I looked to the sky out of habit. I generally take my camera every where since I am doing a project that requires me to take one picture every day for a year, and luckily had brought along my wide lens (I usually just have my 50mm on my camera), so I hopped out of my car and snapped a few pictures before going on my run.

-Abigail Thompson

I took this picture the day the theme was announced. Glad I did - teh sky has been overcast and featureless ever since. I figured if I couldn't have interesting composition or features, I could at least compensate by over-processing into a high dynamic range picture.
Exposure-bracketed photos taken with a tripod-mounted Canon 60D, f/10, 1/250 second, ISO 100. Made into a gaudy HDR image in HDR Expose.

-Brian Hall

Naturally, there was next to no weather activity and/or clouds in my region during the contest period... let alone a cloud that would inspire hallucinations. So, given only blue skies hours - this contrasty shot coming up a hill will have to suffice this week.
Canon 5D Mark II f5 50mm ISO 100 1/50

-Daniel Jones

I was super excited to see this photo challenge come up, since I happened to be in Hawaii at the time, with its attendant beautiful clouds. I went out to watch the sunset, and saw this scene dominating the shoreline - it was just too cool to resist. Rebel T2i, f/11 1/500 exposure, ISO400.

-Paul McNiel

I was on the beach in Atlantic Beach on Long Island New York trying to get my tan on when I looked up and saw the arrangement of the clouds and the sun. I thought it was beautiful and remembered the challenge but I did not have my camera with me. What was the next best thing? My iPod Touch. Not a terrible pictures with the iPod but the picture could have turned out better with a real camera.

-Alexa Kaminsky

Walking around Brooklyn on Saturday was humid. Really humid. However, I walked down to the pier off of 65th street and the humidity dropped and I could finally breathe. The sky was beautiful that night. It made me wish I had my DSLR but I made due with my iPhone. The sun was finally setting and I looked out at what was left of the Manhattan skyline. It will always look like it's missing it's two front teeth. The clouds bubbled up around Manhattan that reminded me of the blockbuster film, Independence Day.
Taken with my iPhone 3GS.

-Kris Lo Presto

Midway through 45 degree *Celsius* day, I naturally figured we would expect to see a fairly decent light show in the evening, as this is usually the case when we have such hot humid days here in Ottawa. I checked the weather radar, and sure enough, a beast of a storm was approaching. At the speed it was moving, it looked like I had about 2 hours until it would arrive (I work Sundays, so this took a bit of planning). I made sure to push my last 15 minute break far enough that I would catch this monster rolling in.

At about 7:20 local time, I went outside to see this churning monster moving in, followed by 140 Km/h sustained gusts, a dust storm in the face, and rain that felt like bullets. All in all it lasted about 15 minutes. I also learned about 5 minutes later that the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest main stage collapsed due to the heavy winds, with Cheap Trick mid-performance. No one was hurt, but it was quite disturbing seeing as a couple of years ago, I lived in Alberta and was around for another one of these freak storms that knocked down the Big Valley Jamboree stage and killed someone.

In regards to the picture, I didn't have my 40D with me at work, so I grabbed my iPhone 4 and snapped a few pictures. It was set on HDR, and this is the HDR shot, which was WAY cooler looking than the natural one. However, the noise on the photo was outrageous, so I plugged it into Lightroom and cranked up the noise reduction. That was the only change I made.

-Andrew Johnson

I took this photo with my Canon T1i with an EF-S 18-55mm IS lens (ISO100 F32 1/160) while enjoying a day at the beach. When i first looked at this photo, my eyes automatically went directly to the sun and its rays. But after looking at it closer, it made me chuckle when I noticed that the blue-ish purple ray of sun in the bottom right hand corner resembled fire, and the cloud that it was nearest to resembled a baby dragon turning his neck and spitting fire as if to protect the sun.